CHAP. II.] JtEfclCIKE MAINLY EMPIRIC, 157 



stands among the most conjectural ones, so the inquiry intc 

 it is to be placed among the most subtile and difficult. 

 Keither are we so senseless as to imagine, with Paracelsus 

 and the alchymists, that there are to be found in man s 

 body definite analogies to all the variety of specific natures 

 in the world, perverting very impertinently that emblem of 

 the ancients, that man was a microcosm or model of the 

 whole world, to countenance their idle fancies. Of all natural 

 bodies, we find none so variously compounded as the human : 

 vegetables are nourished by earth and water ; brutes by 

 herbs and fruits ; but man feeds upon the flesh of living 

 creatures, herbs, grain, fruits, different juices and liquors ; 

 and these all prepared, preserved, dressed, and mixed in 

 endless variety. Besides, the way of living among other 

 creatures is more simple, and the affections that act upon 

 the body fewer and more uniform ; but man in his habi 

 tation, his exercises, passions. &c., undergoes numberless 

 changes. So that it is evident that the body of man is more 

 fermented, compounded, and organized, than any other 

 natural substance; the soul, on the other side, is the simplest, 

 as is well expressed : 



&quot; purumqus reliquit 



^Ethereum sensum, atque aurai simplicis ignem;&quot; b 



so that we need not marvel that the soul so placed enjoys no 

 rest, since it is out of its place : &quot; Motus rcrum extra locum 

 est rapidus, placidus in loco.&quot; c This variable and subtile 

 composition, and fabric of the human bodv, makes it like a 

 kind of curious musical instrument, easily disordered ; and 

 therefore, the poets justly joined music and medicine in 

 Apollo; because the office of medicine is to tune the curious 

 organ of the human body, and reduce it to harmony. 



The subject being so variable has rendered the art more 

 conjectural, and left the more room for imposture. Other 

 arts and sciences are judged of by their power and ability, 

 and not by success or events. The lawyer is judged by the 

 ability of his pleading, not the issue of the cause ; the pilot, 

 by directing his course, and not by the fortune of the 

 voyage ; whilst the physician and statesman have no par 

 ticular act that clearly demonstrates their ability, but are 



b Virg. ^Eneid, vi. 746. * Arist. on the Heaveos, 



